But it's still on the list . . .

January 2009

01/29/2009

Radio silence tomorrow is likely, as I am taking a short work-related trip.

I'm upset about it. I am starting to realize I really hate to travel for work. I have no reason to worry about what the trip is for, there's no possible way I can fail here, it's just that . . . well . . . I'm going to be away from my wife and kids and suddenly that doesn't feel like the right thing to do. Even though it's only one day.

Maybe it's because Lotus is really having some struggles with school. Basically, we're thinking she's not feeling like it's right that she has to go away and Tesla and 3White get to stay home with Mommy. It was worse when I was leaving to go to work early (long story), and I wasn't there to say goodbye to her in the mornings. This week I was back on regular hours, so I was there to say goodbye, but not this morning, and, in fact, I won't see Lotus until, probably, Saturday morning. Even though Ladybug is bringing me some dry cleaning in the middle of the day, with 3White and Tesla in tow, Lotus will be in school. I don't even want to think about how she's going to react. I expect to come home to someone who spent 48 hours completely upset that she didn't get to see Daddy.

01/28/2009

Which, trust me, in this economic climate are exactly the problems that everyone would love to have. But, it means I'm a little busy today, which is why you're getting this Tweet length post instead of something more substantial. Like I ever post anything substantial.

01/27/2009

I don't do UI design. Oh, I can adjust font sizes, and play around with tables and lines and tabs. But inevitably, someone asks me to create a design that has some pretty colors or something, and then it all falls apart because I'm colorblind.

My latest issue is that I am trying to replicate a design that was presented to me as a picture. From this picture I now have to hope that the color specs are decent enough that I can draw their colors out using an image editing tool or something. Frankly, it's a lot of extra work, and for not a lot of gain.

A picture may be worth 1000 words, but if you can't interpret the picture (and there's the problem: pictures are open to interpretation) properly, you're not getting the same 1000 words as someone else. And that's just not going to work in my current environment.

01/26/2009

I don't know what the problem is with the city planners around here. Actually, I do know. They're myopic idiots.

Case in point: Loop 101. They started building it a decade ago. They finished the main part of the loop, but now they're going back to add a carpool lane. This means that there's almost no part of the road that's not under construction at any given moment. But are they content to stop there? Oh no. This weekend, they decided to close the entire freeway at some exit for some reason. That might have been OK, if every other road in town wasn't under the same restrictions. 51, building carpool lanes that should have been there when they opened it; 17, adding lanes that should have been added 20 years ago; 60, adding lanes that should have been added 30 years ago. They're trying to do all of this in parallel and it's not working. Every project takes more and more time, and less and less return. About the only road that isn't completely torn up is the 202. Oh, wait, some sort of bridge issue where the new light rail goes through. I meant, of course, the 10. Oh, no, right, out where it meets the 101 in Buckeye, the interchange is having something done to it.

Finish one project. Please. Just pick one. I know the state is bankrupt, so we really can't afford all this work anyway. Of course, now, all the projects are sort of half done, leaving the entire city without any kind of real freeway network for at least the next 10 years. By which time, the work we're doing today will be for nothing, because the population here will have tripled because of everyone leaving California which is even more bankrupt than Arizona.

01/23/2009

Lotus got sent home from school yesterday. Had a bit of a bump on the head in PE. Nothing serious. Just a reminder that it's a great big world out there and I can't watch my kids every minute of their lives. She handled it all pretty well, I must say.

01/22/2009

So, anyone out there watching Leverage? How apropos was this week's episode? Ladybug was like, "Yeah, like that's going to happen, no one can do that with a plane." To which I had to reply, "Well, some crazy guy just landed a disabled plane in a river without hitting any boats or killing anyone, so, well, who knows what a sufficiently awesome pilot can and can't do." She didn't have an argument to that.

From the start, though, I've been comparing it to The A-Team, even though Ladybug (and the promo writers) have been comparing it to Ocean's 11. And they finally caved and admitted it when one of the cast members said, and I quote, "I love it when a plan comes together." Said cast member was not wearing gloves or "smoking" a cigar, but there it was. I had to roll back the DVR a couple of times, because I was laughing so hard about it, I missed the rest of the conversation.

01/21/2009

01/20/2009

No, it's not about ivory backscratchers (though I have to wonder where all the tax payer money we sent to Citigroup is going, now that Citigroup is breaking up). This morning, when I filled up my tank, I noticed that my Magnum was right at the 80K mark. In a mere 4 years. A lot of that came from when I was working in Denver, and I'd bring the family up with me every so often. A car ride of that length certainly puts the miles on. It's still running great, and I plan on getting at least another 80K out of it. Hopefully, that will take a little longer than 4 years. If I'm really lucky, my oldest will be learning to drive on the Magnum. Now there's a scary thought . . .

01/16/2009

Well, my clever shortcut to making some new functionality work in an old framework has shot me in the foot. So, now I have to go back and clean out the mess and generally make the entire thing work the way I should have done it in the first place.